Whereas a value-added tax (VAT) is a type of sales tax that is assessed on goods at every stage of production;

Whereas a VAT is a hidden tax that is ultimately passed along to consumers, but is embedded into the price of goods and services and therefore not transparent to the consumer;

Whereas the average tax burden levied by the Federal Government since 1980 has been 18% of GDP;

Whereas, within the next 15 years, Federal taxes are projected to rise to the highest level in US history;

Whereas adding a VAT on top of the existing Federal income tax would increase the burden on United States taxpayers to unprecedented levels;

Whereas the average VAT rate in Europe has risen from 5% when the tax was first introduced in the 1960s to 20% today;

Whereas European countries that have imposed a VAT have seen their total tax burden rise to an average of over 40% of GDP;

Whereas such high levels of
taxation and spending crowd out private investment, which stifles economic growth and leads to chronically high levels of unemployment;

Whereas the IRS has calculated that US taxpayers spend approximately $200 billion and 7.6 billion hours a year to comply with Federal tax laws;

Whereas a VAT would only add another layer of complexity and compliance costs to a fundamentally unsound tax system;

Whereas the burden of a VAT would fall most heavily on low-income and middle-class Americans; and

Whereas a VAT would do nothing to restore fiscal accountability in Washington, but would simply bankroll wasteful and inefficient Federal Government spending:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That--

It is the sense of the House of Representatives that imposing a value-added tax would be a massive tax increase that would cripple families on fixed income and only further push back the US economic recovery; and